Lily of the valley

Posts

• Busy-Lizzie Posts: 24,023

  January 2015

  I would keep it on the window sill for now. It's far too early for garden ones to be flowering so must have been grown in a greenhouse. Although they are hardy I think it would be a shock for it to go out now. Enjoy the scent indoors! In the house, why hide it in the shed? They have probably been grown so early to enjoy as house plants.

  Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.

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• AWB Posts: 421

  February 2015

  In France the 1st May is lily of the valley day, and you wear a sprig on your lapel, as a love token.

  should not be flowering now so definitely do not plant outside yet.

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• Wendy summerville Posts: 5

  February 2015

  Thankyou all so much. I guessed as much, so will enjoy and plant out later. So glad I found this forum, never too old to learn from others, thanks.

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• diggingdoris Posts: 513

  February 2015

  I want lily of the valley in my garden but I've never managed to keep them. Each time I plant they just disappear. Maybe the clay soil doesn't suit. I've tried in pots as well, but just get a few leaves and nothing else. Are they tricky? I thought they are a bit weed-like , as my grandmother had them running all over her flower beds.

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• D0rdogne_Damsel Posts: 4,184

  February 2015

  I would like to know the answer to that too, I have a 'wildy' bit of garden, well a bit that is supposed to be wild as opposed to bits that try to go that way - I heard they spread well & thought they would do the job - any ideas? It is quite a shaded area under trees with a mahonia & rhododendron growing nearby. 

  • “Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?” —Betsy Cañas Garmon

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• bekkie hughes Posts: 5,294

  February 2015

  Well ladies, i was always told they like a dampish woodlandy type spot, but mine dissapered too. Ive planted some under my grapevine (accident) the border is dry and baked, they do get shade when the vines are in leaf, but it really isnt the "ideal" garden position. So i would say, try a few bulbs in lots of different spots, be sure to mark them as they are under the ground for a lot of the year and easy to forget
  
  
  
  Mine were poundshop jobbies, nothing posh

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• D0rdogne_Damsel Posts: 4,184

  February 2015

  Thanks Bekkie, mine certainly won't be posh jobies either, will be beg, borrowing or stealing them. 

  • “Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?” —Betsy Cañas Garmon

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• Liriodendron Posts: 8,328

  February 2015

  Strange thing, lily-of-the-valley.  I'd never had any success growing it until we came here, when a friend gave me some roots and I bunged them in very poor, clayey soil on a NE slope in shade.  It's now taken off, and spread several metres into the lawn.  I've since invested in one with elegantly striped leaves, and another with pink flowers - they're all doing well.    I'm sure Bekkie's right - it's worth trying it in a few different places, diggingdoris, to see what happens.  (I've seen it growing wild in SE Finland, in a wood in very dense shade, by the way.)

  Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.

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• DorsetUK Posts: 441

  February 2015

  My mother-in-law had a very shaded small border against the north-facing wall of her house. with a thin layer of soil on solid chalk.  Stuffed full of lily of the valley. Mind you she always backed horse racing winners as well much to the annoyance of my ex and his brother-in-law.  She would never tell them who she was backing when they went off to Salisbury races, she said they would put the kiss of death on the poor horses

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